People Are Six Times More Likely to Discuss Politics than Religion

“Don’t talk
about religion and politics.” U.S. adults are taking this advice only about the
former.

A recent Gallup
survey asked respondents to answer the following open-ended question: “Thinking
about the conversations you had in the past week with friends or family, what
are the major things you recall talking about?”

Only 4% of U.S.
adults said religion was a significant conversation topic for them in the past
week, which equaled those who discussed weather, life in general, sports and
cooking / dinner / food / restaurants.

Women (5%) were
slightly more likely than men (4%) to say religion was a “major thing” they conversed
about, while those 35 and older (5%) were more likely than those under 35 (4%),
and Republicans (7%) were more likely than independents (4%) or Democrats (3%).

These
differences, however, were either right at or within the plus-minus 4% margin
of error.

By contrast,
politics was six times more likely to be a major topic of conversation, with 24%
of respondents affirming this (second only to family matters at 46%).

Of those who
discussed politics, 18% had general conversations on the subject, while 6%
specifically addressed Donald Trump and 1% the government.

“Younger adults
are much less likely than older adults to talk about political matters with
friends and family,” the report said. “Just 12% of young adults (those between
the ages of 18 and 34) discuss politics, compared with 25% of middle-aged
adults (35 to 54 years old), and 33% of those aged 55 and older. College
graduates are twice as likely to discuss politics as those who did not graduate
from college, 36% to 18%.”